In my favourite episode of the week so far, Des is rushed off to hospital, escorted by Paul, Terese and guilty Jane. Jane is still feeling angry with Paul and Terese makes things even worse by admitting that she too read her emails and it does not matter a jot that they were only trying to help.
Jane and Des finally talk and realise that the last time they were together, they both had feelings for each other but she had to leave suddenly to look after her Nan, Mrs Mangel. She feels she cannot take the risk to be with him because of her terrible decision making re: Richard the Catfish. She doesn’t want to get her heart broken all over again. However, good old Dipi gives her food for thought when she suggests that everything may have happened for a reason – to bring Jane and Des together. Jane changes her mind at last, prompting her and Paul to have to chase Des on his way to the airport. Jane and Des decide to make a go of things. Hurrah!
Meanwhile, Sky and Lana’s wedding venue has effectively been ruined. Just at that moment, Dylan shows up, surprised to find Erinsborough full of wedding fever. Evidently, Sky always told him that she never wanted to get married. As she delicately tries to explain, he gets the wrong end of the stick and thinks that she has finally changed her mind about their relationship, something he has been hoping for during their entire separation and now wants to marry him. He is crushed when he realises that she is actually preparing to marry Lana.
When Terese asks to push Sky and Lana’s wedding back a day in order to fix the venue, Sky suggests halting the wedding completely. She wants things to be perfect and all the while Dylan objects, it won’t be. I think Lana is pretty patient about the situation, to be honest. But then, she’s loved this woman for how long? Sixteen years? However, it’s Paul Robinson, of all people, who sorts the situation out and gives him and pep talk, helping him reconcile the situation in his mind. He tells him that Sky has cancelled the wedding because he is so upset.
Dylan puts a brave face on and gives Sky his blessing. The wedding is back on! It’s relocated to the tram café and with Susan now busy, Jack officiates, which is a particularly beautiful touch – a Catholic Priest officiating a lesbian wedding. It’s a beautiful ceremony that long term LGBTQ Neighbours fans who all those years ago could only ever have dreamt of seeing Sky and Lana end up together, finally get to see them united. And I hold my hands up, I am one of those fans. I loved this episode. I don’t even have anything sarcastic to say. It was just brilliant and I am so happy that Stephanie McIntosh and Bridget Neval (who I gather doesn’t even act anymore but loved the character and the story so much that she couldn’t say no), agreed to return for this.
The women look beautiful as they walk down the aisle together. Dylan even comes to the wedding to support them, as do the locals, including some of Sky’s loved ones. Lana’s vows are particularly beautiful as she tells Sky, “You were my first kiss; I’m so happy you’ll be my last.”
Sky and Lana get their happy ever after…
At the reception, Jack empathises with Dylan, having been through something similar recently with Mark and Paige. He tells him that Sky will always remember the support he gave her on her wedding day. Jane, Des and Paul finally show up to the wedding, having missed the ceremony and Jane accidentally thinks Des is proposing to her and accepts so he proposes to her for real! Cue the next wedding, guys!
Marlon is distraught to discover that while he has been in prison, April has been bullied by a girl in her class. Thankfully, with Vinnie’s encouragement, April stands up to her, in front of Marlon. She is very brave.
Rhona tells Marlon the truth about the money. He is understandably livid and gunning for Charity. He summons his friends and family to the pub in order to confront her. Everyone is ashamed of her, although she fails to just apologise and attempts to defend her defenceless actions. Ryan is regretful and does point out that he did do the right thing and handed the money over to Rhona and told the truth. Marlon is also angry with Mandy about the journalist that greeted him on the day he came home. Charity tries to implicate Rhona but Marlon argues that although she didn’t rat on Charity and Ryan, she went to the police immediately. It soon transpires that Cain also knew about the money.
With Pierce having pleaded guilty to murder off screen, Rhona is able to focus on Graham’s funeral. However, Kim sneaks off and cremates Graham in a private service, attended only by herself. Rhona is understandably furious. When Andrea confronts Kim over what she has done, emotional Kim says too much, leading Andrea to believe that Kim may have ordered Pierce to murder Graham. Jamie confronts his mother about it and she admits that she considered asking someone to kill Graham. He concludes that she went through with it, only Pierce got there first. She makes excuses and Jamie has a surprising level of understanding considering he’s supposed to be such a nice man. Andrea is horrified and demands sole custody of her daughter or she will tell the police everything she knows.
Kim excludes everyone from Graham’s funeral…
While Al is furious with Kim for what he has done, Kim remains calm and confident. Then she threatens Andrea. However, things backfire when Andrea tells Rhona and Rhona tells Marlon. Soon the police are knocking on the door of Home Farm and Kim is arrested for conspiracy to murder. They question her about the £60,000. At the police station, she denies everything. Eventually, she admits she gave the money to Al, who is then also arrested for conspiracy. They are both released, at least for now.
Jamie accuses Andrea of turning Kim into the police, which she denies, revealing that Kim threatened her life. Rhona reveals to Andrea that she told Marlon what happened. While Andrea panics, Rhona is confident that Kim will be going away for a long time. Marlon announces to the pub what Kim has done but that Pierce got their first. He also quits his job.
Having learned of his Dad’s debts, Ellis confronts Al who attempts to explain. When Marlon discovers Al’s involvement, he bursts in and punches him. When Ellis fails to shop Al to the police, Marlon throws him out of his house. He has chosen his side. I think I quite like Ruthless Marlon.
Charity has bigger problems, however, as she continues to struggle with Vanessa’s cancer diagnosis. Tracy ignores Vanessa’s request for a low key birthday and goes behind her back to arrange a party, thinking that Charity has been neglectful. Charity drags Tracy outside and breaks Vanessa’s confidence, revealing the truth about her diagnosis. Tracy is devastated and Vanessa is eventually grateful that Charity did what she couldn’t. Charity and Tracy argue over the best way to support Vanessa but eventually pull together as a team as Vanessa begins to break the news to her loved ones, including Noah and Sarah. Sarah, who has been through cancer herself, is particularly amazing.
Charity does her best to support Vanessa…
Wendy babysits while Victoria and Luke have their first proper date. Unfortunately, things go wrong when they attempt to become intimate. Victoria has a flashback of Lee and panics, throwing Luke out. Luke is broken hearted over the deep pain that his brother is still inflicting on Victoria. He is genuinely a good person. The next day, while Victoria concludes they can only be friends, Luke is happy to pursue a relationship with no pressure for things to become physical between them.
Victoria and Luke try to find a way forward…
Jai wants himself, Laurel and the kids to all move in together but Laurel turns him down, having not told him about Arthur’s violence against Archie. When the boys are left alone together, Archie ends up injured, leading Laurel to burst out the truth, shocking Jai. Arthur insists that Archie had been playing with the gift that Betty sent through the post that had belonged to Sandy. He had let him play with it and then put it on a shelf. Archie climbed onto the shelf and fell. Knowing his past behaviour, Laurel doesn’t believe him and tells him that Ashley would be ashamed. Losing his temper, Arthur wishes his mother dead. Bit harsh. But while Jai persuades Laurel to put Arthur into counselling if their relationship is going to work, Laurel cannot convince her son to tell ‘the truth’. He is clearly telling the truth. Archie appears to have turned the tables on him after being his victim for so long. He makes fun of Arthur having to see a counsellor and suggests that if he were to tell them that he is still being bullied, Arthur might get sent away.
Archie now has the upper hand with Arthur…
Harriet pushes Will towards counselling but his biggest concern is jealousy over her friendship with Cain. He tries and fails to warn Cain away from Harriet. I mean, I know he’s been to prison and everything but does he really think he’s a match for Cain Dingle? Come on!
Dawn is thrilled to get the news that within the next month, she will be granted full custody of Lucas. Harriet is furious with Will when he doesn’t show the correct enthusiasm for the news his daughter has been waiting for all this time. He is still angry about Harriet’s friendship with Cain. Selfish. However, he does go to his counselling appointment.
Cain and Moira are visited by their normal friendly policeman and a new officer, DI Malone, with the news that the gun that shot Nate is related to a gang related incident where three people were killed. When they leave, Moira tells Cain that she buried the gun in the top field. They plot to get rid of it for good. Cain then tackles Harriet about the history of the gun and exactly what Will has got himself involved in. She confronts Will but Cain and Moira storm in, wanting the information first hand. He admits that he was given the gun to hide.
DI Malone leads a team down to the scrapyard to find the gun but it’s already too late, Cain has sent it off in a car to be crushed. DI Malone turns out to be an ex-colleague of Harriet’s but judging by the terror on Will’s face, he is much more than that! As soon as he is alone with Will, he demands to know where his gun is! He threatens him and his family. Will insists that Cain was the one who shot Nate and he has destroyed the gun now.
Will and Cain then get dragged in deeper and deeper with DI Malone. Cain ends up running drugs for him. Moira’s bull gets murdered but thankfully it’s head isn’t put in anyone’s bed or anything. There’s a scene in some dark room with three spotlights in it where DI Malone turns into The Godfather, parading around in front of Cain and informing him that he has everyone, from lowly coppers to high class judges under his control. I’m sure other things happened but the plot is so boring that I stopped following it ages ago. Sorry, not sorry.
With his upcoming wedding to Lydia in mind, Sam decides to give Samson his wedding ring from his marriage to Alice, which he has worn every day since. Within moments, Samson pawns the ring. Charming!
Emmerdale is on at 7pm Monday to Friday with a second episode at 8pm on Thursdays
Finn hurriedly cancels Toadie’s boat and contacts Shane from his phone to say that he will be staying on The Island for a new more days. He then spends the rest of the episode ignoring calls on Toadies’ phone. He reassures Harry that the strangers on The Island are kids that he knows. He is confident that they aren’t a problem. He checks on Bea, who pays dead.
The kids have a misunderstanding about getting physical. Upset, Harlow storms off and gets lost in the forest, stumbling across Bea in the mine. Before Bea can stop her, she climbs down the broken ladder and falls into the mine herself; now they are both stuck. She gives Bea some water as Bea explains that Finn pushed her in and tried to kill her; he wants to be with Elly and told her that she is in the way. Obviously, there is no phone reception in the mine and the only way out is up – but they can’t reach. Poor Bea is certain that Elly knows nothing of Finn’s intentions towards her.
Bea and Harlow are trapped…
Back at the camp, celebrations are getting underway for Elly’s birthday but she walks out of her own party, overwhelmed with guilt at Bea leaving The Island. Susan hasn’t been able to get hold of her, making Elly feel certain that Bea knows the truth about her and Finn. She decides that she needs to go and find Bea herself. Finn decides they should leave The Island together. Everything is working out as he had hoped. All he can think about is kissing her.
Elly confesses her guilt to Chloe, who has missed her brother’s wedding to throw this party for her. She tells her that she and Finn are going to find Bea but Chloe points out that if Bea does know the truth, the pair of them showing up will only make it worse. Good point! The girls hatch a plan to leave The Island together instead, which now makes me worry for Chloe’s safety. What if Finn thinks she is in the way now? Chloe is the best! She can’t die! But this is a show that killed Sonya Rebecchi. They could murder anyone at this point.
Finn wants Elly all to himself…
Roxy and Kyle continue to deny their attraction but it’s not long before they fall into bed. When they emerge from their tent, they get a shock to find that Gary has arrived on The Island. He is desperate to make up with Kyle and informs everyone that the wedding is off. He also lets the group know that the winds have risen and nobody will be getting on or off The Island today. Later, we witness a moment of very strange, intense eye contact between Gary and Finn. Will Gary rumble Finn? Will he become Finn’s next victim? I’ve had a theory for a while that Gary may sacrifice himself for Kyle or maybe even vice versa. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, Prue is tearing across the country in her car towards The Island, desperately trying to track Gary down. She leaves him tearful messages, telling him how much she loves him and wants to make their marriage work, that she doesn’t want to be in The Order anymore. She gets lost and overwhelmed and leaves a message for Harlow, telling her how much she loves her and how much she wants her to be happy. Then she decides she needs a drink, opening the honeymoon box she grabbed on her way out, thinking there will be champagne in there and… boom! The box intended for Lucy, which passed to Paige was eventually passed to Prue. I mean, it’s quite fitting that nobody wanted to go to Rome at this point but still… The whole car explodes. Prue is dead. The killed Denise Van Outen! How very dare they?!
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